Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?
Parallel translations
- KJV Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
- BSB Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon God.
- NKJV Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon God?
- NASB ¶Have the workers of injustice no knowledge, Who eat up My people like they ate bread, And have not called upon God?
- NLT Will those who do evil never learn? They eat up my people like bread and wouldn’t think of praying to God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The wicked devour God's people thoughtlessly and refuse to call on him. It rebukes the senseless cruelty of those who ignore God.
Overview
David marvels at the ignorance of evildoers who consume the godly as casually as eating bread and never seek the Lord. Their prayerlessness reveals their refusal to acknowledge God. The verse comforts the oppressed that God sees their mistreatment and will hold the wicked accountable.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Jer 4:22“For my people are foolish, they don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”
- Jer 10:25Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob. Yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
- Ps 27:2When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
- Ps 94:8Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?
- Isa 27:11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
- Matt 23:17–39You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
- Rev 17:16The ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute, and will make her desolate, and will make her naked, and will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 53:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.